Every Sukkot any aravot that I start the holiday with tend to get dried up by the end of the holiday, if not to the point of being unfit for service, at least enough to be ugly. What do you do to maximize the amount of time your aravot stay fresh?

6 Answers
6

I've tried the paper towel/aluminum foil (my father's method) idea, keeping them in the fridge, and keeping them in water. One year I got a whole lot of them and experimented with around seven different methods for each pair, to see at the end of the week which method would be the best.

The winner (and what I've been doing every year since then): wet them just a bit, and put them in an air-tight wrapping like saran wrap or plastic wrap, then keep them in the fridge. A bit involved but it works very well

If you live in a more arid and hot climate, like southern California, put a few drops of water in the lulav bag. When you walk out in the street, the heat of the day causes the water to evaporate, but because the bag is closed, it has nowhere to go. this disperses the water around the whole bag, and keeps the everything moist. Kind of like a mini greenhouse.

As I found out this year, however, this does not work in a more humid environment. It just makes everything soggy and moldy.